|
Excerpts from a few selected examples (Editors: Contact me for clips):
"Chasing the Moon's Shadow," Science Probe, April 1991, pp. 80-90, 121.
"Don't let anyone kid you: the difference between a 99 percent partial solar eclipse and a total solar eclipse may be just 1 percent of the sun's surface, but it's 100 percent of the experience. And that difference is what makes some people so addicted to total eclipses of the sun that they will spend thousands of dollars to pursue the moon's shadow to the remotest regions of the globe just to experience two or three minutes of totality. I should know. I've chased five eclipses to places ranging from the Arctic to the Sahara
"…For example, there are the still-mysterious shadowbands... "
"Sky Riding," Adventure Cyclist, March, 1997, pp. 24-25.
"One of the best parts of bike camping is sleeping out under the stars. It allows me to combine my two loves: bicycle touring and amateur astronomy. ...The fun begins at sundown, after the last aluminum pot has been cleaned from dinner.
"...Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight--is probably a planet. …"
"Ingenuity in the Moon's Shadow," The Sciences, November/December, 1999, pp. 14-17.
"I left Payta before daylight of [August] 29th…[and] reached Piura, a town of some 10,000 inhabitants...45 miles distant…[by] about 5 P.M. The...desert of sand is so drifted by the strong daily winds that the mule paths are obliterated almost as soon as made, and the traveller finds his way by the tall stakes that have been planted and the skeletons of animals that have died on the road from heat and thirst.
"The account comes from a report by James M. Gilliss, an American Navy lieutenant, and was written during his trek across Peru's formidable Sechura Desert in 1858. Gilliss and his small party are in a race against time…, pressing single-mindedly toward...a rendezvous with the shadow of the moon, as that body passes directly in front of the sun. Then, for a precious minute, while the blinding solar disk is obscured in total eclipse, the intrepid travelers can witness phenomena that, in the mid-19th century, were impossible to observe any other way
"… By Gilliss's account, it is a trip through a living hell…"
|
|
